The owner of a seed company says there is about four or five inches of excess water on the fields across the southeast.

Marc Hutlet of Marc Hutlet Seeds in Ste. Anne says farmers started to rebound from a high water table coming out of winter, and several spring rain storms, but have been impacted, once again, by Monday night's storm which dropped up to an inch-and-a-half of rain in some areas. 

"Every time it rains like that we lose a few more acres and it's just more pressure on what was under siege from the beginning."

 Hutlet says cereal crops are looking the best right now although this last storm had strong winds which knocked down some fields. He adds corn and soybeans have been under pressure from the beginning and the less rain fields have had are looking better than those with excess moisture.

"A lot of corn is waist high, then you have corn that is barely knee high and off colour. There's going to be a yield reduction in those spots, compounded with the fact that there's a few less plants that have survived the rain," notes Hutlet. "Soy is no different. There's some large areas in the fields where I don't think the plant popped very good and there won't be very much yield."

He adds it has been a stressful year for canola due to heavy rains and, overall, he is expecting only average yields.

Hutlet says fields north of the Trans-Canada Highway seem to have been hit harder this year than south of the highway, noting there has been hail of the Southeast but it has not caused considerable damage, although Anola did receive hail Monday night recorded as large as three inches wide.

"South of [Highway] 1 we have pockets like Niverville, Tourond, some of Grunthal, and even within the central part of our area where the crops still have, I think, good potential."

He says, at this point, farmers are hoping for four or five days of sunny weather to help dry things up.